Improvement in carriage-wheels



'T. WEAVER. Carriage-Wheels. 10153 207, Pate'ntedluly 21,1874.

v THE GRAFHEO Cm PHOTO LITIL BQJ 4'! FAR? MEI, NX.

UNITED STATES PATENT @FFIOE.

THEOPHILUS WEAVER, OF HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT lN CARRIAGE-WHEELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 153,207, dated July 21,1874; application filed September 5, 1873.

My improved wheel is a metallic structure,

and the following are its principal features:

First, a vertically, two-parted hub, having a linchpin chamber in its body, closed against the ingress of dust and the egress of the lubricant; second, a peculiar arrangement of the linchpin, inserted in a regular cylindrical axle, and rendered accessible only in a reliable way, to avoid accidental detachment; third,

an eccentric arrangement of trenches in the hub-plates for the retention of the spoke substitutes, staggered wholly across the hubparting line alternately; fourth, certain modifications in the interior termini of the trenches by transverse cleatin g or offsetting across the hub-partin g line, to form rests for the support of the stub ends of the spoke substitutes, in wheels built with reference to stability; fifth, certain modifications in the loops or spoke substitutes, by which two or more are formed into congeries by the run of the uncut stuff or rod of which they are made, and certain thorough-trenches in which their straight limbs are admitted through the hub as stretchers, in wheels built with reference to elasticity sixth, acruciform or cross-trussed arrangement of the limbs of the loops, by which they are made to re-enforce each other, and by which they are less easily extracted from their places in the trenches, in rigid wheels seventh, a plan of recrossing and meshing the limbs of the loops,

exteriorly to and in the hub, near its periphery, to enhance the stability of the wheel; eighth, a peculiar felly substitute and loop arrangement, by various subdivisions, to fillthe fire 5 ninth, a complement of tireliners or felly substitutes, bolted to the tire through oblong holes, to allow shifting in the intervening spaces, between the exterior of the knees of the loops tenth, a peculiar con struction of the ends of the tire liners, to embrace the knees of the loops .aud to hug the tire; eleventh, a complement of compound liners, or adjustable twoparted felly substitutes, peculiarly joined, to adapt themselves to limitedirregularities of the frames composing the wheel; twelfth, a modification in the length. of the tire-liners and loop-crowns relatively to each other, to complement conjointly the subdivisions of quadrantal, tri-looped, sextuple, or other plan of division.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front view of my wheel, on quadrantal plan. Fig. 2 shows a vertical bisection of the same. Fig. 3 is afront view of the same, with one of the octagonal hub plates removed. Figs. 4 and 5 represent the hub-seetions or plates. Figs. 6 and 7 represent the parts of the compound liner, bed, and follower, respectively. Fig.8 represents the simple tire-liner. Fig. 9 represents a dwarfed liner or knee-piece. Figs. 10 and 11 represent the simple and the compound tire-liners respectively, modified for complemental loops. Fig. 12 represents a congeries of four quadrantal loops, arranged on the hub. Fig. 13 represents two congeries, each formed by two complemental loops. Fig. 14 represents a plan of a sextuple wheel. Fig. 15 represents a plan of a tri-looped wheel.

My improved wheelhub is vertically two parted near the middle of its body. The male section F is applied to the female section F, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and they are in form or plan as shown in Figs. 4, 5, 12, 13,11, and 15. B B B B, the connecting-bolts, are inserted, as indicated, in holes a. The male section F has centrally raised on. its disk an inner hub, H; and the female section F has a central cavity about the bore for the axle, to admit part way the hub H into .it; and, when admitted fully, to leave an unfilled chamber, H in which the horizontally-inserted linehpin it, made headless or stub-form, travels and transversely fills, to locate the wheel both ways on the axle without butt, boss, or other irregularity thereon requiringlathe-work. The linchpin chamber H is a lubricant-holder, and may be made oil-tight by leaded joints, or by filling an annular groove, A, about the chamber H with rubber or felt, as shown in Fig.

4. Provision is made to detach the wheel cidental detachment.

linehpin is accessible for its removal only when they are opened." The port-holes are securely closed, when the wheel is in'use, by

blocks L, Fig. 2, fitting the port holes. The blocks are held in their seats by nuts of the hub-connecting bolts B stepping on the outer ends of the blocks. The removal of the linchpin is thus made contingent upon the removal of the nuts of the connecting bolts 11. The port-holes are made to open away from the axle-bearing sufficiently to leave the bearing and plate unimpaired in strength, and "the inner ends of blocks conform to the plane of bottom wall of the chamber 11 The inner hub H is projected into the cavity of the opposite plate only snfliciently' torightly impose the plates, and assist the connectingboltsj The contour or periphery of the hub may be'polygonal or circular. In Fig. 13 the hub has bastions 'or fronts Q, projected into the fields of the loops to strengthen their limbs.

" In wheels built' on plans of hexagons the hubs maybe star-form; on plansof triangles, the hub may also be star-form, with alternate points foreshortened; on plans of octa-gons, the hub maybe circular or octagonal.

The hub-sections F F are similarly chauneled on their inner faces by semi-oval trenches Gr, directed parallel tothe plane of the faces,

and in the imaginary chord-lines of the wheelcircle, and' corresponding in number with the number of subdivisions of'the wheel by the loop-form or returned-spoke substitutes t t t, whose straight limbs or extensions are aligned in the chord-lines of the wheel, and are either stopped midway in the hub by their stub ends against cross-cleatin gs Sin the middle of thorough-trenches, as shown in Figs. 3, 4, and 5,01 by the ends of diverted trenches, as shown in Figs. 14'; and 15, in wheels built only with reference to rigidity or stability. The diverted trenches are so named because they are ofl'setted,midway'in the chordline,tolie in the balance of the chord-linein the opposite hub-section. They are oifsetted to stagger the loopiimbs alternately across the hub-parting line, and lie wholly either fore or all; from said line, as shown in Fig. 2.

The'staggeringof the loop-limbs is effect-ed either by setting one limb of each loop on each side of saidline, or by setting alternate pairs of limbs "alternately across the line. The former plan appliesto cross-trussed limbs, the

latter to direct or parallel limbs of loops'or to "complimental loops; the object being to have the limbs, after insertion, ruii'in' a series around the hub alternately oppositely staggered, as shown in Figs. 1,2, '8, 12, 13, 14,

and 15, and crossed, also, by insertion or con struction. P i

In quadrantalwheels the trenches G ,are parallel to each other in the same hub-section, and at right angles to each other relative to the opposite hub section. In sextuple and tri-looped wheels the trenches G, as shown in Figs. 14 and 15 respectively, are parallelin relation to those complimenting them inthe opposite section, and are directed to those adyacently in the same hub-section, so as to .be in- =clined toward them at an angle of about sixty degrees. The trenches are all locatedin the perpendicular direction to the radius of the wheel, and more or less distant fromits center, the stability of the wheel being indir'ect-l y as the eccentricity of the trenches,'and the elasticity being directly as said quantity, as the points where the limbs cross each other will be more or less remote from the wheelcenter, according to the eccentricityin any given subdivision of the wheel. a

The limbs of the loops are designed toiill the trenches flush with the face of section-in which they are located, so that theylmay be tightly held in place on joining the sections. Sheet-rubber blocks or leather cuttings may be lodged in pockets N, Fig. 5, in the troughs of the trenches,- to add' tightness of insertion, and to avoid precision of castings and gage of stufl'. r i

The trenches G, represented as cross-cleated, or, whichis the same, oflsetted midwayinto the opposite hub-section, aredesigned' to be so made only for wheels built with reference to stability. They are directed eccentrically, that they may, when desired, thoroughtreneh the hub-plates clear of the axle and linchpin chamber, and thus adapt thehub as a species of rack, to hold one or more' congeries of loops pliantly suspended in its body, as shown in Fig. 12, in which four quadrantal ps, t t t, connectedly formed 'by the run. of

the uncut stuff, form a congeries or frame which is inserted in the thorough-trenched hub, as shown, to make a yielding or elastic wheel. The congeries is closed by a weld at J, or its equivalent. The rods or straight parts of the congeries are allowed to slide in the hub as stretchers-through it, and. thehub itself, axle, and carriage-body, are thus caused to vibrate by a peculiar vertically-rocking motion when the wheel encounters an obstacle. Congeriesof two or more loops :may alsobe inserted in hubs trenched on the plan shown in Figs. 14 and 15, the stretchersbeingdeflected to eorrespondwith the ofi'set of .the trenches, which mustbe extended beyond the midway point of the hub sufiiciently to accommodate the deflected part'of the stretchers, to allow 'room for vibration. In Fig. 13 congeries composed of two complemental loops are shown. a a The plan of the loops t t t is substantially the same, whether a greater or less number of them is employed to support the tire K.

- wheel.

They are made with a tire-supportin g crown, t, and are returned roundly from the tire-curve, forming bended knees on the tire at the extremities of the crowns, and their straight limbs t t are prolonged to the middle of the chord-line in which they are directed, or they extend through its entire length to form the stretchers in the congeries. The loop-limbs are made to enter the hub cross-trussed or cruciform, the place of crossing occurring either inside or outside of the hub-periphery, .or inside and outside of said line, according to the purpose of the wheel. Said limbs are thus cross-trusscd that they may resist extraction from the hub in rigid wheels, and that they may assume resistances to the wheel responsively or re-enforcedly.

In Fig. 14 the limbs of the same loop are shown crossed exterior-1y to the hub, and the oppositelimbs of adjacent loops are crossed or meshed inside the hub, thus slurring the loops to more effectively prevent extraction. A similar arrangement will apply to tri-looped and other wheels.

The object of the loops is not only to serve as spoke substitutes, but also as felly-segments. Their crowns are designed, ordinarily, to 00- cupy the major subdivisions of the tire-concave, but may occupy the complements of the same, as shown in Fig. 13, as the crowns and tire-liners may exchange places, but not offices.

' The intervening parts of the tire-concave bepositely on the wheel, and not more than one pair of the compound liners are needed on the In both forms of the liners their ends are provided with semi-oval bearings or curved flutes Z tofitagainst the outside curves of the knees of the loops, which. are admitted sufficiently into the fluted ends to detain them laterally thereon, and to rest the liners as on abut ments to arch said intervening spaces. The liners are provided with oblong holes X to admit ordinary:tire-bolts, by which the liners are joined adjustably to the tire. They are i joined adjustably to avoid exact spacing of the boltholes in the tire and'exact placing of the loops crowns, which are loosely sprung to line the complement of the tire-concave. The simple liners are arched bars of suitable length to span the average length of said intervening spaces, and are shorter for=quadrantal, trilooped, or sextuple-looped wheels than" in wheels where'they occupy the long complemental spaces, and the compound liners are long or short for the=same reason. The kneepieces Z, shown in Figs. 9 and 13, are thecnd sections of simple liners. The short liners or knee-pieces are employed to favor lightness of structure, and the liners to favor strong support for the tire.

The-compoundliners consist each of two parts, a bed, 0 and a follower, 0 shown in Figs. 6 and 7 respectively, which are applied to each other as shown in Fig. 11,. They are. adapted to be lengthened or shortenedbyadjustment of a ratchet-faced lap-joint about the middle of each liner. The bed 0 is provided with the ratchet-faced retreat cl, terminating between two guards, h, formed on the sides thereof, to keep the follower aligned on the bed. The ratchetteeth are set edge foremost that they may bite into each other relatively to resist strain upon the ends of the liner. The parts are set to bite properly before the tirebolts are tighten ed, by forcing the joints apart, and whenthe said bolts are tightened they persistently maintain their bite.

I claim I 1. The combination of the male section F of the hub, provided with the boss H, and the female section F, provided with the circular cavity in its center to formthe closed linchpin chamber H the inner faces of said sections being trenched for the admission of the spokesubstitutes, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The stub linchpin 1'2, inserted horizontally through the axle, in combination with the hub-sections F and F, Substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. The eccentric trenches G in the hub sections F F, for the admission and retention of theloop-limbs t t, all combined substan tially as set forth. 1

4. Theblocks L, in combination with the chambered hub-section F, for the purpose set forth. o

5. Theloops t t t, provided with. the tirelining crowns-t and limbs t t,combined with the hub-sections,;substantially as and-for the purpose set forth. v

6. The combination of loops t ti t, to form the compound loops, in themanner set forth.

7. The combination of two limbs, t t, of ad jacent loops t t t, to secure them incrosstrussedposition in the hub, in manner set forth. I

8,- The combination of loop-crowns t and tire-liners Q and 0 G to fill the compass of the'tire .K, arch form,in the mannershown.

9. The loop-crowns t, in combinationwith the knee-pieces-Z, by which the tire is supported only at regular intervals in light elastic structures, in the manner. herein set forth and described.

10. The curved and fluted ends I of the liners, in combinationwith the knees of the loops t t t, for thepurpose herein set forth.

11. The combination-liner, composed of the bed 0 and the follower .02, these .parts being constructed and applied to each otheradjustably, substantially in the manner as and for In testimony that I claim the foregoing as the purpose herein set forth. my invention, I have hereunto set my hand 12. The liners O and G 0 simple or comthis 30th day of August, 1873.

pound, when provided with oblong bolt-holes THEOPHILUS WEAVER.

X, to allow of limited shifting on the concave Witnesses of the tire K prior to their fixed attachment, DANIEL A. KEPNER,

for the purpose herein set forth and described. JoHN FERGUSON. 

